Telstra 'kept info from ACA inquiry'

Telstra had perpetuated "one of the biggest cases of fraud ever" by keeping information from the communications watchdog, the businesswoman who triggered an inquiry into the telco said today.

Brisbane restaurateur Ann Garms said an Australian Communications Authority (ACA) investigation into the telco earlier this month was flawed since it was completed without information vital to the case.

The ACA inquiry cleared Telstra of lying to federal parliament and the Victorian Supreme Court about work carried out on a Brisbane phone exchange in 1993.

"This is going to be one of the biggest cases of fraud ever and this is going to come out," Ms Garms said.

Ms Garms is among 35 disgruntled small business customers, referred to as Casualties of Telstra, who have been battling the upgrade claim.
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The issue is at the heart of a long-running dispute for Ms Garms, who lost legal action against Telstra when a judge accepted the telco's claim there was no upgrade.

Ms Garms said today the ACA report was rushed, and could not be considered a credible document.

She said she was considering further legal action against Telstra or Telstra staff and called on Communications Minister Richard Alston to open a new, non-government inquiry into the claims.

"All we ask is for the minister to have a proper and thorough, vigorous look at these matters," Ms Garms told reporters.

"Telstra has consistently covered up, misled and deliberately stalled inquiries so the truth would never be known."

Telstra spokesman Rod Bruem denied documents had been withheld from the ACA inquiry.

He said there had been nine investigations into Ms Garms' claims since 1989 by different bodies.

"Every single time, they have rejected Ms Garms' allegation," Mr Bruem said.

"Every single time, she has then come forward, as she has today, claiming to have new documents, or that key documents have been hidden or suppressed.

"And every time it's looked at again, there's the same outcome."

Ms Garms said the ACA inquiry was a case of one government department investigating another - a "Yes, Minister syndrome".

"We would rather ... have a senior person who is not saddled with the baggage of the legal profession, where it's all about outcomes and not the truth," Ms Garms said.

She said 95 per cent of the information Telstra provided to the ACA inquiry completed earlier this month was irrelevant to her claims.

"I've had five Telstra engineers sit down with me in the last week ... and mark the areas of the ACA report which are quite misleading in their content," she said.

"I really get the impression the minister is nervous of the ACA report."

Ms Garms said Telstra had continued its deception on November 20 by misleading a Senate estimates committee, which considered whether her telephone had been bugged.